The present invention relates to a gas engine arrangement having a gas engine and a gas rail.
Gas engines, especially those which are used for mobile applications, e.g. in operating environments such as ships, commercial vehicles and the like, are subject to the requirement, as regards emergency stop situations, of adopting a safe operating state as they shut down. In general, this necessitates purging the gas rail and feeding it with inert gas.
FIG. 1 shows solutions in accordance with the prior art, in which, as can be seen, a high outlay is incurred for such purging inasmuch as it is often necessary in this case to pierce the double wall 7a′ surrounding and protecting the fuel system 7′ of the gas engine 3′ and the gas rail 9′ thereof in several places and, in association therewith, a multiplicity of valves also has to be installed in a disadvantageously expensive way in order to meet the requirements on the intended purging functionality.
In a first solution from the prior art in accordance with FIG. 1 (solid inert gas arrows), the inert gas is introduced (first valve) into an inflow path of the gas rail 9′ and, if required, discharged (second valve) from the rail 9′ through the double wall 7a′, which is pierced in this case. This is obviously associated with a high outlay on construction, especially in respect of the piercing and sealing of the double wall 7a′ (particularly also for the passage of control lines which is necessary in this case).
In a second variant in accordance with the prior art, as shown in FIG. 1 (inert gas arrows in dashed lines), the inert gas is introduced (first valve) directly at the gas rail 9′ through the double wall 7a′, which is pierced for this purpose, and is then released (second valve) via the gas control section 15′. In this solution too, the abovementioned disadvantages occur in the same way.